Decisions: MAWMonday Motivators 01/14/2018

Life is a collection of decisions. “What’s the meaning of it all?” It is the question on your mind. “You decide,” is the response of record. Yet, the significance of the response may be lost on you, the petitioner. I fear that many have lost their ability to autonomously make decisions. The combination of misinformation, lack of reasoning, and tainted priorities has resulted in committed action in directions that do not serve our best interests individually or collectively. The collective opportunity is a distant achievement from our current position. But, individual progress can occur as we gain some insight on the challenge we face.

Twitter assists me in outlining challenges and solutions as we make decisions. Self-reflection, self-management, along with a sense of the difference you are and the difference you make are keys to access. And, after that access to understanding, you decide what our benefit will be.

1. Make Some Decisions

Freedom invites you to exit approximations of ownership in favor of a vision of and effort toward You as owner. This begins with a respect and valuation of self. Beyond selfishness and vanity, this is humility that speaks to your ability to continue learning, to build readiness, and to develop over time. You don’t have to BE all at once. You must only commit. Your vision and effort continue as you decide each day to choose vision over the deception and to see freedom as the goal.

You can decide that you are worthy. You can decide that you are ready.

2. Do What’s Good for the Soul

Consider that it does not make sense to wait to the end and ask what it is you want to do. The end desire is among decisions made at the beginning of any endeavor. Feed your soul as a decision ordering your life daily rather than waiting until retirement. In a retirement-focused life, your last 20 years are yours to do with as you please. What would be the impact of an informed alternative approach? Depending on your starting position, you could wrestle 40 or even 50 years of autonomous decisions from life. The question is one of information. Autonomy is based on a knowledge that won’t be gained in schools that have vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Beyond the practical and the expected, your greatest teacher will be self-reflection as a lifestyle practice, authenticity without judgment, permission to live in two worlds, and mechanisms to build your production.

3. Distance from Negativity

The lesson does not fit your expectation. The lesson is that distancing yourself from negativity is a function of renewing your tolerance threshold. It is a function of your decisions along the path. A result of discourse about solutions rather than problems. It is orienting yourself toward progress and correction rather than despair and lamentation. As you participate in decisions actively promoting health and well-being, you effectively deny even intentionally negative experiences to take a hold on your life. It’s not denial. It is health that blocks negativity.

4. You Have Nothing to Prove

You have nothing to prove. Discussion of laziness, listlessness, and free-loading only make sense in a world where work is narrowly defined and used as a determinant of worth. That world and definition match the amount of labor with the value of the person. Yet, another option exists. We rarely consider the owner of a business who takes a month vacation as lazy. We rarely determine the CEO’s salary based on how many hours he/she works. More often, we value the output and outcomes. But, we also value and respect the position. These decisions are more arbitrary than most would admit.

Whether leadership, ownership, or license, an alternative to labor-based valuation is certification-based valuation. For you, that means that your attempt to gain respect through work is only one option. You can rise to ownership and enjoy the respect that is afforded owners. The only question remaining is, “Which are you? Owner or Worker?”

5. You Have Everything to Inspire

The decisions you inspire count the most. Obtaining the level required for you to begin may be a sacrifice. But, sacrifice has also been miseducated throughout time. We point out heroes, the selfless, and the generous based on one-time and large events. We applaud Jeff Bezos for his $33 million scholarship donation for Dreamers. From these accolades, you get the sense that your sacrifice must be all-or-nothing, grand spectacle, or witnessed by as many people as possible. In truth, sacrifice can be done in pieces, in small gestures, in private. This means that you can sacrifice even as it seems that you are not giving enough. Sacrifice is giving to the goal intentionally and giving out of your need instead of your overflow. Your decisions to give could inspire and instruct others especially as you demonstrate success due to your sacrifice.